Checklists and Must-Dos
When planning for your course, there are a number of programmatic requirements that MUST happen every semester:
- Course Welcome Letters
- Common Assignment (for 105 and online 101 only)
- FYW O/H Attendance Policy
- Accessibility Check
Aside from our FYW Programmatic requirements that all classes must adhere to, please find additional requirements for online/hybrid sections below.
Course Welcome Letters
A week or two before your online or hybrid course begins, it’s recommended to send your students a welcome letter. This letter can remind students what type of course environment they’re enrolled in as well as relay important details about the course setup before it begins.
You can find a sample letter for an online ENG 101 welcome letter here, as well as a sample letter for an online ENG 105 course here.
Additional samples from other courses can be found in this Course Welcome Letter folder, along with a template you can adapt.
Common Assignment: Comparative Rhetorical Analysis
In order to assess the work of our program, we have developed a common assignment for online ENG 101 and all ENG 105 sections. The common assignment for this assessment cycle is the Comparative Rhetorical Analysis, and all instructors teaching online 101 and 105 (all formats) are REQUIRED to assign this writing project to all students.
There is additional information concerning the Common Assignment as well as suggested major assignments on the Course Planning page under Assignments. If you need more ideas or information on other assignments, you can visit the FYW Project Moodle Space.
Attendance and Deadline Policies
- Attendance policies for online/hybrid sections of ENG 101 and all sections of ENG 105 must be set at the beginning of the semester and all students must be notified.
- For hybrid classes, instructors may choose alternative face-to-face or online meetings during the reserved class time. Make sure students have the time blocked out throughout the semester since they it’s their required seat time. If instructors change face-to-face for online time or online for face-to-face time, students must be notified in a timely manner.
- In online classes, face-to-face conferences or other in-person meetings cannot be required for students. You can ask for in-person attendance, but it cannot be required or penalized. Use Google Hangouts or Skype as an alternative when conferencing with online/hybrid students.
Course Readiness Checklist
In addition to this Assessing Online Facilitation Handout, here’s a Course Readiness Checklist you can use to evaluate and check your course’s readiness before opening it to students.
This checklist would be helpful for usability testing with peers or colleagues prior to the start of the semester!
Addressing Accessibility
When setting up your course, be sure to have it addressed for issues with accessibility. You could do this by using the NCSU IT Accessibility Quick Guide for faculty or you may request someone review your course content from IT Accessibility at NC State.
When creating web content or developing a Moodle space, instructors should read the NCSU IT Web Accessibility Handbook to locate areas of concern. For a quick overview and checklist for accessibility, use the NCSU IT Accessibility Quick Course Content Checklist.
You can also find more information about Issues of Accessibility within this site as well.